The 1st Federal Civil Court of Goiânia handed down a sentence on March 8, 2022 on a case of Search and Seizure of minor, based on the dictates of the Hague Convention, sponsored by the Botinha e Cabral Law Office.

The child, currently with 3 years of age, had been abducted by her mother to Brazil in November 2019, at the time the child was 9 months old. Previously, mother, daughter and father (and another sibling from the father’s previous relationship) resided in Australia.

The relocation of the mother and daughter took place without the knowledge or agreement of the father, that found out they returned to Brazil when he came back home and saw all clothes and goods of the child had disappeared.

In the action, which had extensive processing, since it began in 2020, documents and experts’ evidence were produced which made evident the absence of any risk for the return of the child to the country of origin, Australia.

The judge of the case, when delivering the sentence, took care to show that the experts who analyzed the whole situation understood that there were no risks for the return of the child. The whole decision has been based on what the Hague Convention dictates about the international kidnapping of minors. Thus, he stated that: “any discussion about the right of custody should be held before the Judiciary of the State of habitual residence of the children, pursuant to the Article 16 of the Decree nº 3.413/2000, where the parties may produce the appropriate evidence. The Judiciary of the State where the minors are being held is only responsible for analyzing the application of the convention, for the purpose of determining whether to determine the return”.

It was stablished to the mother the voluntary return to the country of origin within 3 months and, if not fulfilled, the father can personally arrange the return of the child to Australia.

Despite the difficulties in complying with the Decree nº 3.413/2000 in Brazil, the decision given by the 1st Federal Civil Court of Goiânia, took care to expressly respect the Hague Convention to which Brazil is a signatory country and will serve as an example for future cases.

The Botinha e Cabral Office team spared no efforts to succeed on this demand, thus ensuring full coexistence between father and daughter and due compliance with the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction, by which one parent cannot relocate a child to another country without specific reasons or authorization from the judiciary where the family lived.